Serbia in Light and Darkness | Page 6

number about fourteen millions of inhabitants. This state will be the
very gate of the East. Yet Serbia is not only the nucleus of the united
Southern Slavdom, but the very nucleus of a Balkan Federation also, in
which the Greco-Roumanian element should be a good balance to the
Slav element in it. I repeat I like my little country just because it is so
comparatively little. But by necessity it is to become much larger. By
necessity the whole of the Serbian race is to be freed and united. By
necessity the Southern-Slav state and the Balkan Federation are to be
realised. Some of our neighbours may be against that, but all their
opposing effort will be in vain. Every intrigue against the Serbian
ideals of freedom and unity cannot effect a suppression, but only a
short prolongation of the period of its realisation. Behold, the time has
come, the fruit has grown ripe. All the Serbian race has now been
plunged into slavery. United to-day in slavery, they have now only one
wish--to be united to-morrow in Freedom.

England is bound to Russia more by a political or military treaty, but
she is bound to Serbia, and through Serbia with all other democratic
Slav worlds more by spirit--just by this democratic spirit. This spirit
which divides the Slav world into two different camps, unites England
with one of them,--with the democratic camp, the champion of which
has been Serbia. A very curious spirit dwells in the little Serbian body,
a very curious and great spirit, which will, I am sure, give form to the
future Balkans as well as to the future democratic Slavdom. And be
sure this spirit is rather panhumanistic than panslavistic.
But after all, when I think of 400 million inhabitants of the British
Empire and remember such a poor topic, as my country, about which I
am just speaking, I must cry again: England, what is Serbia, that thou
art mindful of her? And the poor sons of Serbia, that thou visitest them?
Still, Serbia is an admirer and friend of England, and that is a good
reason why England should look sympathetically towards little Serbia.
There is a Serbian proverb: "A wise lion seeks friends not only among
the lions, but among the bees too." Of course Serbia needs England
much more than England needs Serbia. I will not now dwell upon
Serbia's material needs; I will tell you about what are Serbia's spiritual
needs.
To begin with the children, the Serbian children need good education.
Our schools give more knowledge than strength of character and a
humane cultivated will. Our national poetry and history have educated
our people much better than modern science did. Still we perceive that
science is necessary for a good education in our times. Therefore we
very much need to consult England in this respect. We well know how
English education is estimated all over the world. England can help us
much to educate the new Serbian generations in the best way, because
such a country as Serbia deserves indeed a noble and worthy future in
which to live. Don't you agree with me? Only I am afraid that I am
speaking of the best education of the Serbian children just at this
moment when it were perhaps more suitable to speak about the best
way to save them from hunger, pain and death.
The Serbian women need to develop their capacities more for social

work, so as to take a more important part in the organisation and
cultivation of their lives. The past of our women consisted in singing,
weaving and weeping. I am sure that the English women, whose
sympathy for Serbia in these tragic days will remain memorable for
ever,--I am sure that after this war they will come to Serbia and help
their poor sisters over there, teaching them and enlightening them. Yet
I am again afraid to dwell longer upon the topic of the enlightenment of
the Serbian mothers at the very moment when those mothers with their
sons and daughters, trodden down by the Prussian boot, look towards
Heaven and silently confess their sins, preparing themselves for a cruel
death.
What do the Serbian men need? They need civilisation, or in other
words: the Bible, science, art. But they do not need the Bible of killing
from Germany, nor the science of killing and the art of killing from
Germany. They do not want the civilisation which means the large and
skilful manufacture of instruments of killing. They want the Bible
which makes good, and science which makes bright, and art which
makes godlike. Therefore the men of Serbia are now looking so eagerly
towards England and her civilisation. More English civilisation in our
country, more England in Serbia--that is our great spiritual need!